1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid ejecting apparatus including a recording head configured to eject ink droplets to form image dots and flushing dots on a recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, an ink-jet printer including an ink-jet head configured to eject ink droplets from a plurality of liquid-ejection openings performs a preliminary ejection (i.e., flushing) for ejecting ink whose viscosity has been increased, in addition to a normal ejection for ejecting the ink droplets to form an image, in order to prevent clogging in the liquid-ejection openings which is caused by the ink solidified in or near the liquid-ejection openings. In a conventional printer, the preliminary ejection is performed in parallel with the image forming, and flushing dots are formed on the recording medium by the ink ejected upon the preliminary ejection.
In such a conventional printer, the flushing dots are formed near the image dots constituting the image, thereby making the flushing dots inconspicuous. Further, where a position on which the flushing dot is to be formed is adjacent to a position on which the image dot is to be formed, the position on which the image dot is to be formed is changed to the position on which the flushing dot is to be formed, and the forming of the flushing dot is canceled. As a result, there is prevented degrading of a quality of the image owing to an increase in a concentration of a part of the image, which increase is caused by mixing of the flushing dot with the image dot located near the flushing dot.